


The Flash and the Ice Queen

by hoffkk



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Ice Queen, Killer Frost - Freeform, SnowBarry - Freeform, emotional caitlin, flashfrost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 07:04:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4010410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoffkk/pseuds/hoffkk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an explosion, Caitlin loses her memory and gains powers.  Barry needs to calm her down before anyone gets hurt, including Caitlin.  She may be evil now, but he still loves her wholeheartedly.  The question is...will his love be enough to bring her back to herself?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Flash and the Ice Queen

**Author's Note:**

> An emotional ride with an emotional ending. Enjoy it!  
> p.s. I apologize for any errors, grammatical or otherwise!

Barry had been sitting by Caitlin's bedside for 26 hours straight. For the past week, she had been re-examining some old research belonging the late Dr. Lincoln. Barry thought it was harmless, when she first starting poking around. They all had. Then, Barry got that horrid phone call from Cisco about the explosion, and suddenly he couldn't run fast enough.  
Upon his arrival at STAR Labs, Barry sped Caitlin out of the wreckage and straight to the nearest hospital. Once she was stabilized, they had moved her into a room in STAR Labs to keep a closer eye on her, the same one Barry had spent his comatose days in. He hasn't left her side since. Meanwhile, Cisco and Joe have been going through the rubble, trying to figure out exactly what happened.  
Barry felt torn. Part of him wanted to go help the guys sift through the debris. He knew he could go through the rubble faster than they could, but honestly he wouldn't know what to look for, since he wasn't familiar with the research. A seasoned cop and a mechanical engineering genius would have a better eye for this job. At least that is what Joe had told him. In truth, Joe knew Barry would be too distracted with thoughts of Caitlin to be any real help. CSI or not, Barry was too emotionally invested in this particular case and would be better off keeping an eye on Caitlin.  
Sitting in a chair he had pulled close to her bed, Barry had leaned forward, placing his hands around one of Caitlin's. Her skin felt ice cold, but her heart monitor beeped steadily. So, Barry tried not to worry too much.  
"I'm so sorry, Cait." He whispered as he stroked her hand with his thumb. "Please, wake up."  
Barry placed a kiss on her hand as a tear fell down his cheek, then sat with his head bowed and eyes closed, still sandwiching her hand between his, as he listened to the whir of the machinery in the room. All of a sudden, Caitlin's heart monitor picked up its pace, and Barry's head snapped up to look at Caitlin. She was convulsing.  
He moved his hands up to cradle her head, keeping it in place against the pillow. Barry was about to call in Cisco for help, when she suddenly stopped. Barry let out a huge breath and kissed her forehead.  
"Don't scare me like that, Cait." He said softly as he rested his forehead against hers, more tears threatening to spill over. He willed them away as he sat back in his chair. About to grab her hand again, he stopped himself. Logically, he knew that he wasn't the cause of her convulsions, but all the same, he decided to let her be for a while. Settling back into his chair, Barry let the steady beat of the heart monitor relax him. It was almost midnight, and Barry hadn't slept since the incident. Therefore, it wasn't long before he found himself drifting off to sleep.  
*****  
A few hours later, the sun was up and so was Barry. It wasn't a gentle wake, but more of a jolt in response to the blaring noises coming from the machines attached to Caitlin. He shot upright in the chair and took in the scene in front of him.  
Caitlin was upright in the bed, tearing the different wires from her body. The look on her face was a cross between terror and anger, but that wasn't all that he noticed about her appearance. Barry also noted that her skin was a shade paler, her eyes were now an icy shade of blue, and most obvious was that her hair was now a light blonde color instead of its usual reddish brown.  
"Cait? Caitlin, calm down!" Barry commanded as he tried to push her back down into the bed. His hands grazed her shoulders and she screamed.  
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"  
Barry pulled his hands back in an "I surrender" gesture, then slowly began moving forward again. "It's okay, just calm-"  
Before he could finish, Caitlin leapt from the bed and threw her arms out in a defensive position, shooting icicles from her palms. One missed, hitting the wall behind him before shattering into tiny pieces. The other punctured his shoulder. He yanked it out, letting blood soak the sleeve of his button down shirt, but he could already feel the wound healing.  
Barry's mind was racing at warp speed. What had happened to her? And how did it happen? And why? None of this made any sense., but he didn't have any time to dwell on it right now.  
At that moment, Joe came crashing through the door gun drawn with Cisco trailing behind, popping out behind the older man with his feet spread apart and hands held up in front of his torso like he was about to do some type of kung fu/karate style move.  
"What's going on?" Joe called to Barry as he tried to assess the situation.  
"Ho-ly frack!" Cisco said slowly, dropping his hands and his jaw as he took in Caitlin's new look.  
Everything was happening across the room, right in front of Barry. Caitlin was standing behind the side of her bed on his right, while the men stood on the left, a little ways in front of the door they had just come through. Joe was closer to him and Cisco was behind Joe a couple feet, parallel to Caitlin. Barry knew the men were just as confused as he was, and he could also tell Caitlin was freaked by the looks on their faces.  
Caitlin didn't know what was happening, but seeing the gun in Joe's hands just made her angrier and more frightened. Sensing an imminent threat, Caitlin lifted her hands once more, ready for the fight.  
Barry knew what she was about to do, so he kicked it into high gear, literally.  
"Look out!" He yelled, before using his super speed to zoom Joe back out the door.  
"You okay?" He asked, giving Joe a quick onceover, noting that he seemed unharmed.  
"What the hell happened to her?" Joe wondered aloud.  
"She's not exactly herself right now." Barry responded.  
"Ya think?" retorted the exasperated detective.  
*****  
While Barry was running Joe to safety, Cisco just stared at Cait, frozen in shock. Caitlin turned to face him, her hospital gown and loose hair flowing with the motion, hands shaking slightly at her sides. She gave him an intense look. Obviously, something had changed in her, but she was still the same Caitlin, right? She wouldn't-hurt him. Would she? Refusing to believe she was completely evil, he swallowed his fear and took a tentative step forward.  
"Heeeey, Cait." He said, smiling his cheesy, boyish grin as he offered a small wave of his fingers. "Love what you've done with your hair."  
Caitlin hissed in response.  
"Well, that wasn't creepy." he quipped, his tone full of sarcasm. "C'mon, Cait, it's me, Cisco. Your best friend." He tried again, motioning to himself. "I come in peace." He added, stretching his arm outward, giving her the Spock hand gesture.  
He left his hand there a moment as she studied it, slowly moving closer. Reaching out, she touched her fingertips to his palm, feeling his warmed. Suddenly, an overwhelming urge waved over her, and she grabbed his wrist, twisting his arm around, then grabbed the other wrist as she began absorbing his heat energy.  
Cisco wasn't sure what was going on, but it did not feel good about it. "Uh, Bare? Little help!" He called over his shoulder. As soon as the words left, his mouth Cisco began feeling light-headed and weak. Getting a better grip, Caitlin slid her hands from his wrists to his forearms and forced him down on his knees, which wasn't hard to do given his abrupt lack of energy.  
Cisco was about to pass out when Barry rushed back in. "Caitlin, NO!" Barry shouted as he sped over, knocking Caitlin onto the hospital bed. By the time she got back to her feet, Barry had run Cisco out of the room and was back with Joe's handcuffs.  
"Cait, everything is gonna be okay. I promise."  
Suddenly, a gun shot rang off. The bullet hit the ceiling, causing bits and pieces of plaster to rain down on the room. Caitlin looked up where the bullet hit, clearly terrified. Seeing Joe peer around the doorway out of the corner of his eye, Barry was pissed, thoughts moving as fast as his feet were just a moment ago What the hell? Why would he shoot her? And why would the shot be that off? Glancing at Caitlin once more, it clicked. Joe wasn't trying to hurt her, he was providing a distraction. So, as Caitlin continued to look around the ceiling, Barry snuck up on her with his super speed, handcuffing her hands behind her back through the bed rail.  
Caitlin had sunken down to the floor on her knees, the action causing her arms to be pulled upward a bit and began to sob, frantically.  
It pained Barry to see her like that, but what could he do? For now, he decided they both needed a moment and went to check on Cisco.  
Heading into the next room, he found Cisco sitting in chair, rubbing his temple with one hand, while Joe checked his pulse on the other.  
"Cisco, you all right?" Barry asked worriedly, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.  
"Yeah, I think so. It was the weirdest feeling, it was like she was sucking the life right out of me."  
"Heart rate appears normal." Joe confirmed.  
Barry reached in his pocket and pulled out his keychain, singling out the mini flashlight from the array of items hanging on it. He flashed it into Cisco's eyes, checking his pupils. Putting the flashlight away, he then checked over Cisco's wrists and forearms, noticing some matching red marks.  
"You'll be a little bruised for a while, but other than that I think you'll be fine."  
"What about Caitlin? What do we do about her?" Joe questioned, crossing his arms.  
"First thing's first," Barry crossed his arms, "we need to figure out what caused her to be so..." he trailed off.  
"Chilling? Ice-olated? Brrrrr-serk?" Cisco offered with a half smile.  
Barry pinched the bridge of his nose. He was glad that Cisco seemed to be his normal self, but he was in no mood for jokes. "Seriously? Not the time."  
"You cope your way, and I cope mine." Cisco explained, feeling a little guilty for joking around.  
"Like I was saying," Barry continued, "we need to figure out what caused Caitlin to become so cold, physically and emotionally."  
"Coldilocks!" Cisco blurted out of nowhere.  
"Cisco," Barry scolded, while Joe laughed hysterically, "we are not giving her a nickname."  
"All right, fine, it was lame anyway." Cisco conceded.  
"So did you guys find anything relevant in all that debris that could possibly explain her symptoms?" Barry queried.  
"We haven't finished examining all the evidence, yet. We'll keep at it, but the machine and it's blueprints got pretty damaged in the explosion. Truth is, we may never know for sure what she was working on or the effects it could have had." Joe stated matter-of-factly, his detective side showing.  
Barry ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I know one way we can find out." The men just looked at him uncertainly. "We can ask Caitlin." He finished.  
"I'm not so sure that is a good idea, right now." Joe replied indecisively.  
"Yeah," Cisco agreed, "In case you forgot, I was just with her a few minutes ago, and she wasn't real chatty." He added dryly, rubbing at a newly forming bruise on his forearm.  
"Look, I get it, and I can hold off on the big questions for a little while, but I need to talk to her now, to let her know everything is okay. You saw before how scared she was, I can't just leave her like that."  
"You're right." Joe nodded. "Besides, it'll make things a lot easier if we can calm her down."  
Cisco shook his head. "Man, this is so messed up. We keep saying how confused we are, but just think about what is going through her mind right now."  
"I think I have a pretty good idea of what she's thinking." Barry noted. "That's why I should be the one to talk to her." Among other reasons. He added silently, referring to his friendly and newly found romantic feelings for Caitlin.  
Cisco concurred, unaware of Barry's true feelings, though he sensed some weirdness between his two teammates as of late. Joe on the other hand, knew Barry's feelings all too well. He always could read Barry like a book.  
Both men nodded their final agreement, then Barry headed back over to Caitlin's makeshift hospital room.  
*****  
Caitlin was sitting in the same spot, hands still tied to through the bed behind her as she sniffled, trying to stop the tears.  
"Caitlin? You okay?" He said softly, poking his head in first, then slowly entering the rest of the way.  
"No! NO!" She began to yell, shaking her arms violently, trying to break them free to no avail.  
Barry didn't hesitate before rushing over to her. "Caitlin, calm down. It's just me..." He said, trailing off at the end as he reach a hand out slowly. She was sitting low on her knees, which were angled away from the bed. He placed a hand on her front knee and began to stroke it soothingly. She started hyperventilating in response.  
"Shhhhhhh. Just relax." He cooed.  
Her breathing slowed a bit, and she spoke, "Who are you?"  
"What?" He blinked.  
"Who are you?" She tried again, a little louder this time as she willed herself to quite shaking, but she couldn't help it. She just felt so scared...and cold. "Where am I?"  
"I'm Barry, Barry Allen. Your... your friend." He clarified and watched her face.  
"Barry Allen." She stated slowly and deliberately as if she was tasting the words.  
"And you're in STAR Labs. You work here as a scientist, remember?" He waited for a flicker of recognition to register in her eyes, but there was none. She just shook her head back and forth. Crap. No wonder she was so frightened, she has no memory of anything. Or does she? Barry wondered silently.  
"Do you remember anything at all, Cait?" He questioned.  
"I-I-I can't, I-" Caitlin started sobbing again as she recalled bits and pieces of the explosion, but everything else remained blank.  
"Shhhhhhh. It's okay, everything is okay now. Look at me." He whispered, moving his hands to cup the sides of her face. He began wiping her tears away with his thumbs, as his own threatened to spill over. Being so close, he could now see the flecks of silver in her light blue eyes that were full of fear, and the bluish tint to her lips. Barry saw that she was beginning to relax a bit, so he decided to try something.  
"Close your eyes." He commanded gently. "close your eyes and take a deep breath."  
Caitlin couldn't remember this Barry Allen guy for the life of her, but for some reason, she felt she could trust him, so she followed his instructions, taking a long breath.  
"Good." He smiled. "Again."  
Once she complied, he spoke more. "Now, I want you to keep your eyes closed and think. I want you to think back and focus on one single memory."  
She nodded and focused on her breathing as she listened to his words.  
"It was last week, a Tuesday, and were in the lab. You were wearing a sheer blue blouse with your black pencil skirt. I was in my flash suit, a red leather one piece with a lightning bolt on the front." He paused to let the information sink in a moment, before moving on. "I was sitting on a table in the middle of the room, and you were pacing back in forth, yelling at me for putting myself in danger. We had a plan to finally catch Captain Cold, but I deviated, cutting off communications with you and the rest of the team. You were so angry with me, but I thought it was the only way to keep you all safe. He had kidnapped you once before, I couldn't let that happen again."  
Barry smiled the smallest of smiles as he continued to stroke her cheeks with his thumbs even though the tears had subsided. He studied her face, her beauty, ignoring the coldness she was radiating. He had it bad for this girl, and he just couldn't- wouldn't- lose her like this.  
"I had jumped to my feet to assure you that I was fine," Barry kept on with his story. "I turned you to face me, and you finally noticed a wound along my hairline. You got all worried as you tried to tend to the cut, doing that lip biting thing that you do with your lower lip, though it was already halfway healed. You had placed one hand on my chest for leverage and the other on the side of my face as you checked out the wound. "  
Barry took a big, deep breath before finishing his story. He needed all the courage he could muster up before saying the rest out loud. "When you went to pull away, I placed my hand over your hand that was on my face, keeping it there. I looked into your eyes and promised one last time that I was fine and then...something happened. I'm not exactly sure what, but it was like something just clicked, and suddenly, we were kissing. It was amazing. Do you remember, Cait?"  
She opened her eyes and stared for a moment into his bright greenish-blue ones. Her brow furrowed as her gazed flickered from his eyes to his mouth and back. He was just so familiar to her and so was the memory he described, but she just couldn't remember, though she desperately wanted to.  
Barry could see the anguish in her expression. "That was the last time we really talked." He admitted, feeling ashamed. "Things got a little awkward after, and we saw each other scarcely. You started doing extra research just to avoid me, and then...and then this happened. He explained.  
"I-I just..." Caitlin started.  
"Just breathe. Take your time and remember. I know you can't forget that kiss because I can't. It was permanently etched into my memory the moment it happened." Barry smiled sweetly.  
She took a deep a breath. "Barry." She whispered, staring at his lips intently.  
"Please remember, Cait, please." He begged, a single tear flowing down his cheek. "I love you." Barry finally whispered.  
No longer able to see her like this he vibrated the cuffs undone, freeing her hands. Caitlin rubbed her wrists, but didn't make any other attempt to move. They sat there staring at each other for what seemed like forever, until she slowly raised a hand to stroke his cheek. He gave a half smile as he covered her hand with his.  
"I'm okay." Barry whispered, making the memory come to life.  
Then he saw what he had been waiting for, a light in her eyes, a flicker of recognition. Her lips twisted upward into a smile as her thumb caressed his cheek.  
Unable to stand the space between them a moment more, he pulled her into a kiss. There was nothing sweet or gentle about it. It was deep and hard, showing just how much he cared for her, and how sorry he was for everything that had happened in the past week.  
Caitlin responded eagerly to the kiss. Not only did it reaffirm that memory, but it brought back all the others too. It was like his kiss was the key to unlocking the treasure chest of memories that was buried deep inside of her.  
To prove she was officially herself again, at least mentally, she broke the kiss and spoke confidently, "I love you too, Bartholomew Henry Allen."  
Barry smiled widely before pulling her back in for a kiss. This time he pulled her into his lap, and she snuggled impossibly closer as her arms moved around his neck, fingers splaying through the back of his hair.  
After a few minutes, they just sat there in silence, Caitlin sitting on Barry's lap, both smiling like idiots as they pressed their foreheads together, allowing themselves to catch their breath.  
"So, what happens now?" She asked, playing with the top button of his shirt, not making eye contact.  
"Honestly, I don't know, but whatever happens..." He paused and tilted her chin upward with his index finger, so she was looking into his eyes again. "We are in this together." Barry said, emphasizing the last word.  
"Together." She nodded with a smile, before kissing him, yet again.  
Caitlin suddenly began to chuckle. "The Flash and the ice queen... we are quite the pair, Mr. Allen."  
"Yes, we are, Dr. Snow." He smirked, brushing strands of blonde hair behind her ear. And he had every intention of keeping it that way.

**Author's Note:**

> So did you like it? Please let me know! Feel free to check out my other stories and my tumblr page: hoffkk. I'd love to hear from you!


End file.
